When Deborah Cullen joined Columbia in 2012, she was given an enviable task. As the new director and chief curator of the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art Gallery, she would oversee its move from a set of rooms hidden away in Schermerhorn Hall for the past 30 years to an expansive, light-filled space in the new Lenfest Center for the Arts on the University’s Manhattanville campus.

Moving day is here at last: When Columbia’s School of the Arts MFA thesis exhibition opens on April 22, the gallery will have not only expanded its wall space but also positioned itself to raise its public profile and forge new relationships with arts institutions in Harlem and throughout the city.